Milgram's Study of obedience

• Information

  • There were 40 American males aged 20-50 PP.
  • The participants thought the study was about memory and learning.
  • The PP would have got the money anyway even if they didn't fully complete the experiment so money wasn't an incentive to stay and go to the full 450v.
  • Confederate was a likable man so makes PP (teacher) not want to hurt learner.
  • Participants are fully debriefed afterwards and shown no harm was caused to the learner (confederate).
• Procedure


  1. PP's drew straws to determine each role (learner or teacher)

  2. PP was always the teacher and confederate was learner

  3. PP was given a sample shock to make them believe it is real

  4. Teacher gives the learner words to memorise

  5. Learner was shocked if they got the answer wrong (goes up in 15v increments)

  6. Learner purposely gives the wrong answer so gets shocked

  7. As it progresses the learner pretends to be in distress and asks to stop experiment

  8. If teacher hesitates verbal prods are given by experimenter until they go up to 450v or stops the experiment
• Aim of Milgram's study

  to investigate whether a person would obey an unjust order from a person of authority to inflict pain on another person.
• Finding and conclusion

  Findings: all PP went up to at least 300v and 65% went up to the full 450v. Most PP found the procedure stressful, showing anxiety and 1 PP had a seizure.

  Conclusion: under certain circumstances people will obey unjust orders if the person believes the man is someone of authority and makes them go against their conscious.